Soft Totalitarianism?

For over a month a magazine sat on the radiator in my bathroom- I rarely opened it and daily I read the following quote :

"There is something deeply suffocating about life today in the prosperous west. Bourgeoisification, the suburbanisation of the soul, proceeds at an unnerving pace. Tyranny becomes docile and subservient, and soft totalitarianism prevails, as obsequious as a wine waiter. Nothing is allowed to distress and unsettle us. The politics of the playgroup rules us all."

--J.G. Ballard

The words that tug at me most are "soft totalitarianism" - I think that I understand this concept yet am unable to actually formualte words to define it.